Back from my summer holiday 
Well that was a longer-than-planned summer break – from both my blog and my Twitter account. I did look in on Twitter occasionally just to make sure it was still there.
It was good to take some time out from blogging and tweeting and get round to doing a few other projects on my to-do list.
One of those are my new websites, one of which I hope to have finished in the next couple of months – I’ve finished writing 100 articles for it and have done the listening. Now all I have to do is make 2,000 pages of activities and create the website pages. More on all that later. The other two are ideas and ideas that have a few pages to them, and more on those later. I also need to get back on track with www.FreeESLmaterials.com.
Also been trying to get to grips with Facebook for the first time. It’s one of those things that has taken me years longer than everyone else to see the usefulness of. I thought Twitter was enough, but now I see them both as being great ways to stay connected and share. Still tweaking privacy and account settings before I fully dive in.
It was also good to re-focus a little. Stepping back from blogging and Twitter for six weeks has given me a lot of time to think about the past year. I started tweeting in earnest last July, and my blogging began in December of last year. It was a great decision to start both. Blogging and tweeting while running seven websites and making more is quite a lot of work to do in your spare time. They’re all interconnected and what I learn from one I can apply to the others. And I enjoy it.
Anyway, a new semester and school year starts for me tomorrow. I’m confident I’ll learn more in my job to write about in my blog and tweets.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Shelly S Terrell, Miguel Mendoza. Miguel Mendoza said: RT @ShellTerrell: Catching up and refocusing http://bit.ly/aa5Q8a via @seanbanville [...]
Sean,
Glad to hear about the refocusing and that you are still a “content machine”!
I hear you about Facebook and though I know my way around it – I still refuse to get pull’n in – I guess I’ll have to blog about my reasons but from an educational standpoint, I’m con. From a pure, let’s connect and talk about our new dogs or night out – wonderful! However, if you have a website/business, you have to have some presence there – a reality.
Keep learning, good luck with the new semester! I’m taking a break from “officialdom” but will keep busy! I’ll just have more time for mid week long bike rides/hikes.
cheers,
David
Hello Sean!
I’m glad to hear you’ve enjoyed your holidays. Those breaks are great to renew one’s energy.
As to Facebook, it’s taking me longer than you to find out its usefulness. I still haven’t. I see everyone I know uses it for social reasons and not professional ones. I’m totally caught by Twitter, which has proved highly beneficial for me as an opportunity to improve and enhance my teaching practice.
Welcome back!
Marisa (@Mtranslator)
Hi Marisa
Still getting my Facebook page ready – slowly. I think it’s pretty much essential to have as a medium to talk about news of all my sites and connect with my sites’ visitors, so I’ll be using it for professional purposes. A lot of people in our PLN do the same. I now think it’ll be as useful as Twitter. Only took me a few years to come to this conclusion
I’ll let you know if my Facebook adventure is a worthwhile one.
Best wishes,
Sean
Sean,
I love your teaching material, it’s just awsome! I am working as an English teacher in Germany and I get so many new ideas from just looking at your website breakingnewsenglish.com. Now I just saw that you have Business English materials as well! I just decided to focus more on Business English for one of my classes, this site is sooo useful.
Keep up the good work!
Best wishes,
Sabine
Thanks Sabine – I have another five sites you might want to check out – click on the banner at the top of this page and you’ll see them listed on the right
Best wishes,
Sean